reading and writing about why we work

05/18/2017

If Work Could Be Enjoyable, That’d Be Great

In the movie Office Space, the movie suggests we should work for self satisfaction. People should work for something that makes them happy and is worth the effort. The main protagonist of the film Peter finds himself in a job that he hates, the only moment he’s happy is when he’s doing nothing and is free from is monotonous job. During his time at Initech Peter is overworked and unmotivated at his current position at work and his position in life. Peter states “I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that's on the worst day of my life”. It would be an understatement to say that Peter is unhappy at his job so much so that each day is worse than the last. Peter declares “if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime, so where's the motivation?” In this scene Peter talks to the Bobs about his job and how there no satisfaction or motivation being rewarded for all his effort only more labor. As the film progresses and Peter cares less and less for his job we see that Peter is enjoying himself since he's abandoned his job and trying to meet deadlines. Only towards the end of the film do we see that Peter has this sense of satisfaction with his new job working outside seeing his labor get rewarded. There was no satisfaction from his job at Initech only more work and more days with more people yelling at him. I agree with the films overall reason for work, I’d like to have a job that would leave me feeling rewarded and proud of my work once I’m done with the day. If work could be something that allowed a person to be satisfied with what they’ve done towards the end of the day less people would be unhappy at their jobs and instead would be looking forward to the next day and not the weekend.